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Lectures/Presentations

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Presentations

1. Challenges to think clearly about God in the Qur'an commentary of al-RaziAudio recording
Presenter: Gordon Nickel, Ph.D
In September 2009 at the 6th Mingana Symposium in Birmingham, England, I had a chance to contribute to the theme, "Cross-fertilization and cooperation in the Islamic milieu." From al-Razi's commentary on the Qur'an I presented his views on the "tampering" verses, on the death and deity of Jesus, and on the relationship of religious faith to violence.
[Note: the published text of this presentation is available in "Download Files" --> "Studies in the Qur'an and its commentaries"]

2. Teaching the Qur'an to university undergraduatesAudio recording
Presenter: Gordon Nickel, Ph.D
The presentation was made on May 8th, 2010 at the Pacific Northwest regional meetings of the American Academy of Religion. I participated in a "Roundtable on Teaching the Qur'an" with Canadian and mostly American professors from Washington and Oregon.

3. Early Muslim commentary on Qur'an verses about tampering with the earlier scripturesVideo recording
Presenter, Gordon Nickel, PhD
In December 2013 I participated in a panel on "Muslim views of the Bible" in Oxford, England, organized by the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies. In this video recording, I present mainly the views of Muqatil ibn Sulayman, the author of the earliest complete Muslim commentary on the Qur'an.

4. Academic study of Islam: Passionate or dispassionate?Video recording
Presenters: Andrew Rippin and Gordon Nickel
In September 2014 Andrew Rippin and I presented an evening discussion at Saanich Community Church in Victoria. We addressed the question of whether the scholar should study Islam passionately or dispassionately. In this first segment, we describe our different approaches from the angle of autobiography.